#Review of Dirty Angels by Karina Halle

June 19, 2014 Lori Review 0

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

by Karina Halle
Published by Metal Blonde Books Genres: Romantic Suspence
Source: the author

**warning: this book contains situations which might be triggers for some people. Please see the bottom of this description to see if this is the kind of book that you'll love or piss you off**

For Luisa Chavez, a twenty-three year old former beauty queen, a better life has always been just out of her reach. Sure, she’s had men at her feet since she was a young teenager but she’s never had the one thing she’s craved – security. Having grown up in near poverty, her waitressing job in Cabo San Lucas can barely let her take care of herself, let alone her ailing parents. Every day is another unwanted advance, every day is a struggle to survive.

When Salvador Reyes, the depraved leader of a major Mexican cartel, takes an interest in her, Luisa is presented with an opportunity she can’t afford to pass up. She’ll become Salvador’s wife and exchange her freedom and body for a life of riches – riches she can bestow upon her deserving parents. But Luisa quickly finds out that even the finest wines and jewels can’t undo the ugliness in her marriage, nor the never-ending violence that threatens her every move.

Soon, Luisa is looking for an escape, a way out of the carefully controlled life she’s leading. She finally gets her wish in the worst way possible.

As it is, being the wife of Salvador makes her an ideal target for rival cartels and there’s one particular man who needs Luisa as part of his cartel’s expansion. One particular man whose quest for power has destroyed lives, slit throats and gotten him out of an American prison. One particular man who will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.

That man is Javier Bernal. And he wants Luisa. He wants to take her, keep her, ruin her.

Unless she ruins him first.

***WARNING*** This book deals with drug cartels and as such it contains a lot of sex and violence and some violent sex. It can get pretty ugly, pretty dark and pretty crazy. There is drug use, abuse, a bit of torture and dubious consent. The hero is not a hero and the villains...well, they're even worse. If this sort of thing bothers you, PLEASE DO NOT READ IT. This ain't no cupcake farting unicorn kind of book. If you are even a bit squeamish about violence, brutality and rape, this is your warning to stay away from a book that you certainly will not like (and why read books that you know you won't like?)***

***While this is a spin-off of The Artists Trilogy, prior knowledge of the books is not needed. DIRTY ANGELS is the first in a trilogy, however each book can standalone and follows or introduces different characters***

Javier is back. And the same Javier that many came to love. Which was awesome, because I definitely found Javier to be the most interesting character from the S&N trilogy. This time he’s home in Mexico, hatching plans and plotting shit. You know how Jefes do. Luisa is a former beauty queen working to support her family. She struggles to pay the bills but her family is happy. That’s until she meets El Jefe de Jefes, Salvador Reyes. He’s got money, and a wicked backhand. But do you think you can say no to a mafia boss? Luisa and Javier’s lives intertwine in a very interesting way.

So you LOVED Karina’s Sins and Needles series and are wanting to read something like that. Well, I hate to tell you but Dirty Angels isn’t just like that. It is, but it isn’t. It’s like Sins and Needles cranked up to 11. But that’s Mexico for you. I have never been in the country. And probably will avoid it for a while, but I’ve been around enough Mexican Mexicans to know that this is almost exactly how they are. Intense. Hungry. Ruthless. I’m not saying every Mexican is out there killing other people or stealing or even breaking laws. They don’t do half assed. Neither does Javier, or Luisa. They both make a lot of choices in the book that seem harsh.

Side note: Chalino Sanchez, Valentin Elizade, and Sergio Vega, among others, were all very well known narco-corrido singers in Mexico. They were killed by the mafia for singing songs about them. So yes, the Mexican mafia really is untouchable, and dangerous.

The story itself is awesome. It’s a twist on boy meets girl AND on all of those captive/captor books that are hot. Karina Halle never does anything like anyone else. Which is amazing.

Be warned, because you’re going to start this book and read the first 30% or so and think this isn’t that dirty. It’s definitely violent, but not dirty sexually. Just wait. It gets there. It’s a slow burn. But it does burn.

Dirty Angles was awesome! It’s a fast paced, amazing read. One that I recommend to people who already love the character. And to people who like romance with lots of blood, and lots of sex.

About Karina Halle

Karina Halle is the USA Today Best Selling Author of The Artists Trilogy (On Every Street, Sins & Needles, Shooting Scars, and Bold Tricks) published by Hachette, the Experiment in Terror series, and The Devil’s series published by Diversion.

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).

Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.

Karina is represented by Scott Waxman of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency